


Our Hero

by thewightknight



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Everybody Lives, Fix-It, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2018-09-13 08:03:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9114238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewightknight/pseuds/thewightknight
Summary: After the Death Star is destroyed, Bodhi, Cassian, Jyn, Baze, Chirrut, and K-2SO are recognized along with Luke, Han and Chewbacca on Yavin IV.





	

Bodhi tugged at the collar of his shirt as it threatened to strangle him. Someone had scrounged up clothing for all of them, and the black robe he’d been given was a bit too tight at the neck and a bit too short in the sleeves, but it was clean and didn’t have any holes or dirt or bloodstains on it, unlike the only other outfit he owned. They were all dressed in someone else’s clothes, in fact, except for Baze, who refused to wear anything but his armor. It had been polished at some point, at least, and he’d scrubbed the dust and soot from his face. Even K-2SO had gotten his paint touched up, the Rebellion symbol bright red against the black on each shoulder.

Guards gestured them forwards as the giant doors swung open and music started to play, and everyone in the vast courtyard was staring at him. Well, they were staring at him and Jyn and Cassian and Baze and Chirrut and K-2SO, and those other three, the Wookiee, the blonde guy and the one with dark hair and the smirk whose names he kept forgetting, but they were still staring and the combined weight of all those strangers’ eyes landed on his shoulders. He couldn’t look up at them, could only stare at his feet, and besides that meant he wouldn't trip as they walked along the path up to where Princess Leia Organa waited.

He glanced up once and then shrunk back in on himself again. What was he even doing here? And then he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"This would never have happened if it wasn't for you," Cassian said. "None of us would be here."

He let his arm drop, gesturing to the people around them. "Look at them. They're all alive because of you. Because you listened to Galen and you believed. You took Galen’s message and you brought it to Saw, and we came to find you. You, Bodhi Rook. You took a chance, and you gave us one. None of this would have happened without you. We’d all be dead if it wasn’t for you. So hold your head up high, hero.”

They were almost to the pavilion, and the ground shook as the assembly turned as one to face the dais, and he hadn’t tripped after all and maybe the stares weren’t that bad. The princess smiled at him, a vision in white, and Cassian pushed him forward so he stood in front of all of them. He remembered to bow after the princess settled the medal around his neck but didn’t remember a single word spoken after that, as he looked out at the crowd, the weight of the medal against his chest an anchor as each of his comrades step forward in turn. Chirrut said something that made the princess laugh. The Wookiee had to kneel so she could get the ribbon over his head and an R2 unit squealed in excitement when he rose, bouncing back and forth behind the princess.

When at last they all stood together, shoulder to shoulder, hands somehow in hands, the cheers of the crowd washed over and through him and he felt himself straighten, standing tall next to his friends.

“We did it,” he murmured, and Cassian heard him over the crowd, squeezing his hand.

“That we did.” It wasn’t over by a long shot, he knew. The Death Star was destroyed, but the Empire wasn’t defeated, but they had survived, all of them, and they would keep on fighting. It just took one person, Galen had said, and here he was. Here they all were. He didn’t know what tomorrow would bring, what the future had in store for him, but there was one thing he did know. He wouldn’t be facing it alone.

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't not write this. Also, Chewbacca should totally have gotten a medal too at the end of A New Hope, don't you think?
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> I'm not the only one who thought of this - [check out this amazing art of everyone getting medals](https://thewightknight.tumblr.com/post/155457221528/shima-spoon-if) by [shima-spoon](https://shima-spoon.tumblr.com).
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>   _edited to add_ : I wrote this fic because I got inspired by [a picture from tumblr](https://thewightknight.tumblr.com/post/155944998730), which I promptly lost, but then found again.
> 
> Feel free to [come say hi on tumblr!](http://thewightknight.tumblr.com/)


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